Friday, August 15, 2008

The Simple Pleasures of Life

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. Oscar Wilde

In the midst of crazy schedules, gridlock traffic, increasing prices (for everything!) and the general madness of life, it is good for the soul to take time to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. Yesterday, I was blessed to experience two simple pleasures of life.

During the day, I spent some time with little C, a precocious 3 going on 4-year old. We were hanging out at the children's pool. The wind blew some leaves on to the pool. Now, we adults would either ignore this or be annoyed that the pool was now littered with leaves. But not this little boy. He started a game of collecting the leaves (and even went to the extent of gathering the leaves by the pool deck and spreading them in the water! Not sure if the pool cleaner appreciated that!). We then had a game of hide and seek with the leaves whereby we took turns to "hide" the leaves in the water whilst the other person would have to seek the leaves. Later, we created little fountains with our hands at the mini waterfall in the pool. Aahh...the simple pleasures of life - a little boy and his imagination.

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity. Germaine Greer

My second encounter took place later that night. J & I met up with a family we knew when we lived in Bangkok. The Kohs were one of the first friends we made when we first moved to Bangkok and really helped us settle in the place we called home for 1.5 years. Despite more than 10 years age gap, our friendship bloomed. Conversation flowed over dinner as if we were never apart. With some people, you just pick up where you left off without any effort. We really are blessed to count the Kohs as our friends. The simple pleasures of life - true friends.